Revamped Osprey Takes Its First Flight

An overhauled V-22 Osprey took a modest first flight Wednesday, 18 months after the military grounded the Marine Corps’ helicopter-plane hybrid because of two fatal crashes.

Pilots hovered the tilt-rotor aircraft up to 30 feet above the runway and conducted maneuvers at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station. The action was the first in more than a year of planned testing before the V-22 is eligible for duty.

While the Osprey has the ability to take off like a helicopter, rotate its propellers 90 degrees and fly like an airplane, it stayed in helicopter mode during its first flight.

A cheering crowd of 200 technicians, engineers and military officials watched the test.

“It’s gone well beyond our expectations,” Marine Col. Dan Schultz, the V-22 program manager, said of the plane.

The military will test seven modified V-22s at the station and four at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The Marine Corps hopes to replace its aging fleet of assault helicopters with the Osprey, and has set its sights on having the V-22 in service by December 2003, Schultz said.

Built by Boeing Co. and Bell Helicopters Textron, each V-22 costs $89.7 million